Recourses from the Attorney General’s Office to FBI and U.S. Attorney are targeting activity across the state.

“We’ve had a couple other stings where females were afraid to talk to us,” the undercover officer said. “Knowing that their pimp or whoever you want to call them will retaliate.”

Ascent 121, a Carmel-based organization that helps teenage human trafficking victims, said since January they’ve worked with between 40-45 teenage girls from Central Indiana, all between 11 and 17 years old.

“It is absolutely something we see year-round,” Megan McGuire said, CEO of Ascent 121. “We’ve seen it in the big cities. We’ve seen it in the suburbs. We’ve seen it from the rural communities, so it’s a pervasive issue that’s happening all throughout the state.”